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what is life without the experiences that you live and learn from? Whether your journey through life is pleasant or traumatic, we rely on our memories to give us drive and clarity.

The idea of losing my mind is one of my worst fears. Not spiders. Not poverty. The idea that one day I could wake up and forget everyone that is most important to me.

After 140 hours, I finally beat Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and I walked away from the experience a little more shaken up then I was expecting. Keeping the spoilers to a minimum, the ending of the game took a turn that wasn’t really predictable until the final moments of the final cinematic. The ending was more powerful with the underlining idea that the game tried to bring forth in which death isn’t just the loss of a loved one, but the loss of the memories that loved one once had for everyone he or she knew. For a blade, it added a new level of pressure when trying to keep your driver alive. It was almost as if life was less important and that you experiences were the one thing that you should hold most dear. There were plenty of examples where blades had true fear in their hearts when holding their drivers in the last moments of their life. You could tell that they weren’t just heart-broken for losing a friend, but they were afraid of moving on to their next stage of life.

It may stem from the idea of being afraid of being forgotten. Ancient rulers would construct monuments in order for the masses to never forget them. It didn’t matter who or what they were during their time as a leader. All that mattered was that their story would be remembered. I see this as the most poetic realization within the art community. More often than not, artists will be remembered and noticed long after their death by the great works they did while they were alive. Edgar Allen Poe was a drunk and laughed at by most of the community. Now, he is required reading by most children in high school and some college courses.

Being forgotten is something that no one is able to handle. When celebrities are no longer followed or are no longer being seen in the spot light, they tend to go a little insane(ie. Lindsey Lohan and Brittney Spears). So this begs the question; what would you do in order to keep yourself relevant to the people around you?

Fairly early in the game you learn about a special form of blades known as “flesh eaters”. These are blades that end up absorbing the heart of their drivers in order to keep themselves alive even when their drivers are dead. They would rather abuse the bodies of their protectorates then die and forget everything that they once knew. Also, you learn that most blades will keep journals of their lives in the hope that when they are reborn and have no memories of their former life, they may stumble upon their journal and remember who they once were.

Obviously, a journal seems like a much better option than cannibalism, but it also comes with some risks. How would you remember that you wrote a journal? What if your driver is killed when you are far way from your writings? How many journals of blades just trying to hold on to who they are, where left undiscovered within the world of Alrest?

For me, its hard for me to decide which one I would have done. Like I said, fear of losing my mind is something that can keep me up at night.

How about you? Have you beaten Xenoblade Chronicles? What are your thoughts on losing your mind?